Unsplash/Kon Karampelas
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There are people that talk the talk, and there are people that walk the walk. Alexis Ohanian is a guy that can do both.
Alexis Ohanian, who co-founded Reddit, resigned from the Reddit board on Friday. In his resignation, he urged the board to fill his position with a black candidate.
Putting his money where his mouth is, he also pledged all future gains from his Reddit stake to serve the black community. And while it’s undisclosed as to what percentage of ownership he still has of ‘the front page of the internet’, it is worth noting the company was last valued at $3B from a Series D funding round in February 2019.
Oh, and Alexis has donated $1M to Colin Kaepernick’s ‘Know Your Rights Camp’, which aims to serve the black community through promotion of higher-education and self-empowerment.
His reasoning
The co-founder viewed this as the best action he could take to promote equality and bring more diversity to corporate America. Married to Serena Williams and having fathered a black daughter, he wanted to be able to tell his daughter about the changes he made during the Black Lives Matter movement.
The bottom line…
Alexis isn’t the only person to have made headlines on Friday for his contributions to equality and change in our country. Michael Jordan (ever heard of him?!) and the Jordan brand (read: Nike) pledged donations of $100M over the next ten years to campaigns that promote racial equality and social justice.
In addition to the donation, MJ and his organization will do more work in at-need communities to promote education and opportunities to help those they’re serving.
At press time, Jordan also added: “F*ck Scott Burrell. He’s trash”.
Water Cooler Talking Point(s)
💧 “And here I was feeling good about my $100+ donation…” (Nick, The Water Coolest HQ)
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